Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi is among those attending the 19th Non-Aligned Movement Summit that started on Monday in Uganda.
The 19th Non-Aligned Movement Summit under the theme: ‘Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence’ will provide a unique opportunity for Member States to take stock of major global affairs.
The NAM summit is held every few years usually in a different continent.
The last meeting was held in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2023, with the theme, Upholding the Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of the contemporary world.
The five-day-long summit is the largest grouping of states worldwide after the UN, with 120 member states, 18 observer nations, and 10 organizations.
President William Ruto is expected to join the summit at the Heads of State and government level on Friday.
There have been claims that President Yoweri Museveni will take over from Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev to lead the second-biggest group of countries after the United Nations.
Uganda will chair the group from 2024 to 2026 and the summit is scheduled for January 15 to 20, officials said. There are fears that some rogue countries like North Korea will send representatives to the meeting.
The focus will be on the North Korean delegation given its latest activities in the Korean Peninsula. In the second half of 2023, North Korea withdrew its embassy to major African countries such as Uganda, Guinea, Senegal, and Angola, showing a behavior of weakening diplomatic relations with African countries.
On the other hand, the size and rank of the North Korean delegation attending the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Uganda have been significantly reduced compared to the past, which symbolizes a decline in North Korea’s interest in this summit and member states and a reduction in diplomatic business, officials said.
In the last summit, North Korea sent Kim Yong-nam and Choe Ryong-hae, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, as the head of the delegation at the 17th and 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela and Azerbaijan, respectively.
“It is a desperate and disrespectful measure, not only to Uganda but also to Africa and the Non-Aligned Movement’s Member States, to attend this meeting after closing the Ugandan embassy just three months before the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement,” said an official aware of the plans.
North Korea plans to use the Non-Aligned Movement Summit only as a venue for propaganda of the North Korean regime and has no will to play a sincere role as a member of the international community
North Korea is continuing to conduct intercontinental ballistic missile tests and nuclear tests, and has recently continued to undermine peace in the international community such as defining the Republic of Korea as the main enemy and threatening to devastate it if the opportunity arises
The Non-Aligned Movement, founded in 1961 at the height of the Cold War between the West and East, has a membership of 120 countries — 53 from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and two from Europe.
Officials said the focus of the summit would be on bringing together leaders from around the world to address pressing global issues and foster cooperation among member nations.
The organizers assured the international community that Uganda was secure despite the recent travel advisories by the US and UK embassies over threats of terrorism in the country.
This is one of the biggest global meetings Uganda is hosting after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007.
Uganda will also host the G77 + China conference from January 20 to 23, 2024, a day after hosting the NAM. Under the theme “Leaving no one behind”, the group that brings together developing countries that are members of the United Nations will be attended by China.
The South Summit is the supreme decision-making body of the Group of 77.
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